Following two runs at Southwark Playhouse, Jason Robert Brown’s award-winning musical, The Last Five Years, opens in the West End at the Garrick Theatre.
The musicals tells the story of two New Yorkers who fall in and out of love over the course of five years, and features the songs ‘I’m Still Hurting’, ‘Goodbye Until Tomorrow’ and ‘I Can Do Better Than That’.
Jamie shares his story from the spark of their relationship’s giddy beginning, whilst Cathy’s side is told in reverse, from the end of their turbulent partnership. The two characters cross paths just once, as their stories collide during the middle of the show.
What did critics make of the West End opening?
Critic Reviews:
The Telegraph (paywall) ★★★★★
Oli Higginson and Molly Lynch give bravura performances as a couple falling into – and out of – love in this clever two-hander.
Evening Standard ★★★☆☆
It’s a smart, compact, 90-minute piece, zestily acted and sung by Molly Lynch and Oli Higginson. But the conceptual framing that makes it special is also a limitation.
The Times (paywall) ★★☆☆☆
Jason Robert Brown’s song-cycle musical is one of the most persistently popular shows never to quite break through into full-on mainstream success…And this fabulously well-performed production, which has moved to the West End after acclaim at the Southwark Playhouse in south London last year, earned a wildly keen standing ovation from its opening night crowd.
All of which is a long prelude to admitting The Last Five Years leaves me both dazzled and entirely disconnected.
The Last Five Years is at the Garrick Theatre until 17 Oct.
